Windows 10 Redstone will get version 1607 and is expected in July

Today, the version number for the first wave of the Redstone update was revealed. The first Redstone release will get the following version:

Windows 10 version 1607.

Let's review what we know about this update.
This information comes from Winbeta, the website which has internal contacts at Microsoft. Winbeta reports that a recent document related to the Universal Windows Platform and Xbox mentions Windows 10 Version 1607. This follows the same versioning scheme as the last two Windows 10 releases, version 1511 and version 1507. This means Microsoft is planning to launch Redstone wave 1 in July rather than June, otherwise it would have been called version 1606 instead.

To quote Winbeta:

Well, Microsoft was not claiming the exact dates for Redstone updates yet, so all bits we know are from leaks and insider information. In summary, we know the following as of the moment of this writing.

Windows 10 Redstone will come in two waves:

• The first wave is expected in July 2016.
• The second wave is expected in Spring 2017.

The first wave of the Redstone update (RS1) which is currently available for Windows Insider program participants, will focus mostly on the convergence of different Windows 10 devices such as PC, Xbox and Phone. RS1 will heavily concentrate on the Universal App Platform, bringing the Windows Store to Xbox One and introducing more Project Centennial and Islandwood apps to the Store.
Currently released builds feature very minor visible changes to Windows 10 like the offline scan feature in Windows Defender and taskbar properties inside the Settings app.

The Redstone 2 update will get a bigger focus on first-party apps and will expand the user's task flow across multiple devices. The most interesting feature of the Redstone 2 update is Task Continuation which will allow users to start a task on one device and then resume and finish it on another. Also, Redstone is expected to bring notable changes to Action Center, Microsoft Edge, Windows Update, Cortana and may also add some integration with Office 365 services. Cortana is expected to become a system-wide assistant. Notification Center / Action Center might get support for widgets, offering quick snapshots of data, synced across your Windows 10 devices. Microsoft Edge will get extensions support.

Also, Windows 10 Redstone will get an updated File Explorer.

Continuum will also be a notable part of the Redstone update. Continuum in current builds of Windows 10 is a user interface which scales across devices. It is likely to evolve to incorporate completion of tasks across devices. SMS texting and cellular calls will come to the desktop via Continuum from a Windows 10 Mobile device. This will allow you to make calls directly from the PC, as is already possible with Mac OS X and iOS on Apple devices.

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